Method of generating a normalized digital image of an iris of an eye

ABSTRACT

The present invention pertains to a method of generating a normalized digital image of an iris of an eye for the purpose of creating an iris code for identification of vertebrates, including humans, the method comprising the steps of:
         capturing one or more digital images of the eye with a camera;   constructing a plurality of imaginary outer iris boundaries in the one or more digital images, based on a known dimension of the outer iris boundary of the eye of a given species of vertebrates; and   using said imaginary boundaries for transforming the one or more digital images into a plurality of normalized iris image that are insensitive to variations in a dimension of a pupil of the eye.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method of generating a normalized digital image of an iris of an eye for the purpose of creating an iris code for identification of vertebrates, including humans.

2. Description of Background Art

A method of this type is used in the context of biometric identification systems based on iris analysis.

A biometric personal identification system based on iris analysis has been described by John G. Daugman in U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560 and in J. G. Daugman: “How Iris Recognition Works”, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 21-30, January 2004.

Such identification systems take advantage of the fact that the iris of the eye of an individual, which may be a human or a vertebrate, has a characteristic pattern that is unique for that particular individual, so that an iris analysis may be used for uniquely identifying the individual. To that end, an image of an eye of the individual is captured with a digital camera, and image processing algorithms are used for recognizing the pupil and the iris of the eye in the digital image. Then, the iris pattern is normalized so as to compensate the effect of varying dilation or contraction of pupil, and a filter procedure is employed for transforming the normalized image of the iris into a digital code, a so-called iris code, that is unique to the individual and may therefore be used for identification purposes.

Once an iris code of an individual has been created and stored, that individual may be identified by capturing again an image of its eye, creating an iris code on the basis of the new image, and checking the iris code thus obtained against the code that had been stored previously.

In general, identification systems based on iris analysis have to cope with the problem that, when the image of the eye is taken, the iris will normally be distorted to some extent, because the pupil that is surrounded by the iris dilates and contracts dependent on the illumination conditions. It is therefore required for an efficient iris analysis that the image of the iris is normalized in order to eliminate the distortions caused by the pupil dilation and contraction. In known iris analysis methods for individuals that have circular pupils, as most humans, the normalization can be achieved by using polar coordinates and normalizing the radius coordinate to the difference between the radii of the circular outer and inner boundaries of the iris.

US 2009/0208064 A1 describes a pupil segmentation method wherein a pupil region which may have an irregular shape and is partly invisible in the image is determined by extracting a region having an intensity that is lower than a certain threshold and then computing the convex hull of that region. This document further describes a method of creating an iris code that is applicable for species, such as horses, which have a horizontally elongated pupil. In this method, the normalization of the iris image and the further procedures for creating the iris code are limited to certain regions of interest in the iris image above and below the pupil. This known method is used to prevent a faulty normalization process, that would be performed when wrongly re-constructing the non-visible part of the outer iris boundary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide method of generating a normalized an iris image which can cope with cases where an outer boundary of the iris is partly of completely invisible, for example because it is largely obscured by the eyelids, as is frequently the case for horses (but also for other animals and even humans, depending e.g. on race, physical condition, age etc.).

This object is achieved with a method comprising the steps of:

-   -   capturing one or more digital images of the eye with a camera;     -   constructing a plurality of imaginary outer iris boundaries in         the one or more digital images, based on a known dimension of         the outer iris boundary of the eye of a given species of         vertebrates; and     -   using said imaginary boundaries for transforming the one or more         digital images into a plurality of normalized iris image that         are insensitive to variations in a dimension of a pupil of the         eye.

Thus the outer iris boundary is not determined by analyzing the digital image of the eye, but multiple (typically 3-5) different estimated outer iris boundaries are constructed on the basis of a reasonable estimate for the shape and size of the iris, which estimate has been verified in advance for the given species of vertebrates. With this method, in contrast with the method as known from US 2009/0208064 A1, all visible iris data may be used for identification purposes. Although one or more of the imaginary outer iris boundaries may be wrong for creating an adequate normalized iris image (typically since the imaginary iris boundary differs too much from the real boundary), given the fact that a plurality of such boundaries is created based on a verified reasonable estimate for the given species of vertebrate, it was found that the present method adequately lead to at least one imaginary outer iris boundary that is suitable for identification purposes. In the present method, one digital image of the eye may be used to create all of the imaginary outer iris boundaries, but also, multiple digital images may be used, each image leading to one or more imaginary outer boundaries and hence corresponding one or more normalized iris images.

In a first embodiment, for an eye having an elongated pupil, an estimate for an outer boundary of the iris may be made by first erecting the spokes orthogonally on the boundary of the pupil and then connecting outer end points of the spokes. All the spokes may have the same length and this length may be calculated by:

-   -   setting a fixed number that represents a dimension of the outer         boundary of the iris in a first direction normal to a second         direction of largest elongation of the pupil,     -   subtracting the dimension of the boundary of the pupil region in         said first direction from said fixed number, and     -   dividing the difference by two.

In a second embodiment, also for an eye having an elongated pupil, an estimate for an outer boundary of the iris may be made by placing an oval with a fixed shape and a fixed size into the image such that the oval is centered on the pupil area and has a large axis coinciding with the direction of largest elongation of the pupil.

In a third embodiment the construction of the imaginary outer iris boundaries in the one or more digital image is preceded by determining a camera-to-eye distance at the moment of image capture, scaling the digital image to a standard camera-to-eye distance, wherein the construction of the boundaries is done using the scaled digital image. In the scaling step, the image is scaled in proportion to the distance between the camera and the eye, such that dimensions of a detail in the image of the eye indicate the corresponding true dimensions of the detail in the real eye. Thus the fixed numbers representing, in the image, the dimensions of the outer iris boundary in vertical and/or horizontal direction will always correspond to the true dimensions of the iris of the vertebrates to be identified.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method of identifying an individual based on the method of normalizing the iris image as described above.

To that end, at least one sample iris code of an eye of the individual has to be compared to at least one reference iris code

According to the invention, the sample and reference iris codes are created from normalized images obtained with the method according to claim 1 and comprise at least two sample iris codes and/or at least two reference iris codes for which different imaginary outer iris boundaries have been used for forming the normalized iris images. Thus at least two pairs of iris codes are compared to one another, and the individual is determined to be identified when this comparison results in at least one pair of matching codes.

Given the uncertainty in the estimates for the size and shape of the outer iris boundary, this multiple-check approach increases the robustness of the identification procedure. An incorrect estimate for the outer iris boundary may result in an incorrect normalization, and this may have the consequence that, dependent upon the dilation of the pupil at the times of image capture, the code match fails although the codes pertain actually to the same individual. However, when the code match is repeated with another sample iris code which is based on a different estimate for the outer iris boundary, there is a good chance the normalization error is no longer fatal, so that the individual can be identified successfully.

Instead of varying the sample iris code that is used for the code mach, it is of course also possible to vary the reference iris code or both. The different iris codes my be based for example on different values of the fixed number that represents the dimension of the outer boundary in the first embodiment, on different sizes and/or aspect ratios of the oval in the second embodiment. It is also possible to change from an iris code that has been obtained according to the first embodiment to one obtained according to the second embodiment.

Further objects and features of the invention will become clear as the description proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of an eye of a vertebrate;

FIG. 2 is an overall flow diagram of a method for creating an iris code from a captured image of the eye;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are top plan views of the eye and a camera for taking an image of the eye;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a relation between a camera-to-eye distance and a spacing of specularity spots;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view similar to FIGS. 3 and 4 for an oblique aspect angle of the camera;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an image capturing method;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method for segmenting a pupil in the image of the eye;

FIG. 9 is an example of a histogram used in the method that has been illustrated in FIG. 8,

FIG. 10 is an example of a set of pixels obtained in the pupil segmentation process;

FIG. 11 illustrates the contour of the pupil obtained as a result of the segmentation process;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a method for normalizing an image of the iris of the eye;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of the method for normalizing the iris image;

FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate examples of normalized iris images;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an identification system for horses, based on iris analysis; and

FIG. 17 shows an example of a record in a database used in the identification system shown in FIG. 16.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As an example of an image of an eye of a vertebrate, FIG. 1 shows an image of a (left) eye 10 of a horse. An upper lid 12, a lower lid 14, a conjunctiva 14, a pupil 18 and an iris 20 of the eye have been shown schematically. As is typical for horses, the pupil 18 is elongated in lateral direction. A bright sclera 22 of the eye is obscured almost completely by the eyelids, so that only small fractions of an outer boundary 24 of the iris (iris/sclera boundary) are visible.

FIG. 2 illustrates essential steps of a method for creating an iris code from an image of the type shown in FIG. 1.

In a step S1, an image of the eye is captured with a digital camera 26 (shown in FIG. 3).

In step S2, the digital image is subjected to image processing algorithms for delineating a boundary 28 of the pupil 18.

In step S3, the image is subjected to further image processing for creating a normalized iris image, i.e. an image of the iris that is normalized to a standard size of the outer iris boundary 24 and a standard size of the pupil 18. Such image normalization is necessary because, in practice, the pupil 18 dilates and contracts in response to varying illumination conditions, so that, when two images of the same iris are compared, the position and shape of the pupil boundary 28 will normally not be the same.

Finally, in step S4, the normalized iris image is filtered with suitable filter for obtaining a binary iris code which has a reasonable number of bits and is nevertheless capable of encoding the characteristic structural features of the iris 20.

As is shown in FIG. 3, the camera 26 that is used for capturing the image of the eye 10 in step S1 as a casing 30 and an object lens 32. Two light sources 34 are rigidly mounted on the casing 30 and are disposed symmetrically on both sides of the object lens 32. Preferably, the light sources 34 emit light in the near infrared to which the camera 26 is sensitive, so that the light sources provide good illumination conditions without blinding the horse and causing the pupil 18 to contract excessively. Near infrared illumination is used also to more effectively reveal iris structure because it penetrates iris pigment better than visible wavelengths.

As has schematically been shown in FIG. 3, ingoing light rays 36 propagate from each of the light sources 34 to the eye 10 and outgoing rays 38 propagate from the eye 10 to the object lens 32 after having been reflected at a cornea 40 of the eye.

As a result, the image captured with the camera 26 includes a specularity pattern formed by two bright specular spots 42 (see also FIG. 1), which are reduced mirror images of the two light sources 34. Although the light sources 34 have identical sizes and brightnesses, the spots 42 may be different in size, dependent upon the local curvature of the cornea 40.

The positions of the specularity spots 42 in the image are determined by the positions of the light sources 34 relative to the camera 26 (FIG. 3) and by the position of the camera 26 relative to the eye 10, in accordance with the laws of geometrical optics. The ingoing ray 36 from each light source and the corresponding outgoing ray 38 are symmetric with respect to the axis of incidence, i.e. the normal to the cornea 40 at the reflection point of the rays 36, 38.

More specifically, as has been illustrated in FIG. 4, the spacing s between the two spots 42 becomes smaller when the distance D between the camera 26 and the eye 10 becomes larger. Thus, since the distances of the light sources 34 from the object lens 32 are known, it is possible to calculate the camera-to-eye-distance from the spacing between the specularity spots 42 when the shape of the cornea 40 is known.

In a first approximation, the cornea 40 can be assumed to be spherical with a constant curvature that will be known for a given species, at least for adult individuals. For non-adults, there will be a known relation between the curvature of the cornea 40 and the age of the individual. In this first approximation, the camera-to-eye-distance D can be calculated on the basis of straightforward geometrical considerations.

In a more realistic approach, the local curvature of the cornea 40 will be a function of the distance of the respective incidence point from the center of the pupil 18. Then, for a given configuration of the camera 26 and the light sources 34 and a given animal species, the relation between the spacing s of the specular spots 42 and the camera-to-eye-distance D will be given by a function that can be determined empirically. An example of a graph 44 of such a function has been shown in a diagram in FIG. 5, where the specularity spacing s, as measured in units of pixels in the digital image, is indicated on the abscissa, and the camera-to-eye-distance D is indicated on the ordinate.

For certain species, e.g. for horses, the cornea typically has different (but constant) curvatures in the vertical and horizontal direction. Then, the assumption of a spherical cornea is realistic as long as the specularity spots 42 are separated along a roughly horizontal section.

In a processor for processing the digital image obtained with the camera 26 (the processor may be implemented in the camera 26 and has not been shown here), the function represented by the graph 44 may be stored in the form of a look-up table or in the form of an algebraic expression, so that the camera-to-eye-distance D can readily be derived from the spacing s between the spots 42.

FIG. 6 illustrates a situation in which the camera 26 captures the image of the eye 10 from a slightly inclined position, so that an aspect axis A that passes through the eye 10 and the camera 26 forms an angle α (aspect angle) with a line of sight S of the eye 10, the line of sight S being defined as a line that passes through the center of the pupil 18 and is normal to the plane of that pupil. In this case, one of the specular spots 42 is closer to the line of sight S and hence to the center of the pupil 18 than the other spot.

In practice, the optical axis A of the camera 26 may deviate from the line of sight S of the eye 10 in both, horizontal direction (as shown in FIG. 6) and vertical direction (not shown). In FIG. 1, a common center or mid-point of the spots 42 has been designated as 46. A deviation of the camera 26 from the line of sight S in horizontal direction translates into a horizontal offset a of the mid-point 46 from a centroid or center 48 of the pupil 18, and a deviation of the camera from the line of sight S in vertical direction translates into a vertical offset b.

When the camera-to-eye-distance D is known, the aspect angles such as the angle α can be calculated from the offsets a and b. In order to measure these offsets in the digital image, the position of the center 48 of the pupil 18 must be known. To that end, as is generally known in the art of image processing and has been illustrated in FIG. 1, a rectangular bounding box 50 may be drawn around the relatively dark area of the pupil 18, and the center of that bounding box 50 may be taken as the center 48 of the pupil.

Thus, in summary, an analysis of the specularity pattern (spots 42) permits to determine four of the six degrees of freedom of the position of the camera 26 relative to the eye 10. The two remaining degrees of freedom are rotations of the camera about a horizontal and a vertical axis, respectively, which, however, lead only to a shift of the image in horizontal and vertical direction in FIG. 1 and can easily be compensated by moving the image such that the center 48 of the pupil will be in the center of the image. Knowledge of the four relevant degrees of freedom of the camera 26 permits to check the camera position at the very instant when the image of the eye is captured.

An example of a method of image capturing utilizing the principles that have been described above will now be explained in conjunction with a flow diagram shown in FIG. 7. This flow diagram expands the step S1 in FIG. 2.

In step S1-1, the image of the eye 10 is “recorded” with the camera 26. This means that the camera is operating in a video mode in which the image data are continuously transmitted from a CCD array of the camera to a processing module where they are processed further. Simultaneously, the image may continuously be displayed on a display of the camera, but the image data are not yet saved in a memory as long as the user of the camera does not actuate a trigger button of the camera.

In step S1-2, the processing software searches for the specularity pattern, i.e. for the bright spots 42, in the digital image. These spots will have the highest intensity values in the entire image, so that they are easy to find and can then serve as a guide indicating the image area where the pupil (18) of the eye should be expected.

In step S1-3, the distance between the spots 42 is measured (in units of pixels), and the camera-to-eye-distance D is calculated on the basis of a function of the type shown in FIG. 5.

In step S1-4, the processing algorithm searches a region with very low intensity values in the vicinity of the spots 42. This region is a candidate for the pupil 18 and is enclosed in the bounding box 50. This provides at least a rough estimate for the position of the center 48 of the pupil.

Then, in step S1-5, the offsets a and b (FIG. 1) are measured and the aspect angles (the angle α and its counterpart for a vertical offset) are calculated on the basis of the camera-to-eye-distance D that has been calculated before in step S1-3.

Optionally, the angular offsets may be used for refining the calculation of the camera-to-eye-distance D. When the cornea 40 is not spherical, the exact shape of the graph 44 in FIG. 5 will also depend upon the angular offsets, so that an appropriate function for deriving the distance D from the specularity spacing should be selected dependent upon the actual values of the angular offsets.

In step S1-6, the calculated distance D and the angular offsets are checked against predetermined tolerance ranges. When the calculated values are within their respective tolerance ranges (Y), this means that the camera is in a suitable (or almost optimal) position for capturing the image of the eye 10. Then, the camera is unlocked in step S1-7, and a corresponding “ok” sign is shown on the display of the camera, signaling to the user that he may push the trigger button. When the camera is triggered, in step S1-8, the image is scaled to a standard size on the basis of the calculated distance D, so that eyes of equal size will also have the same size in the digital image, regardless of the exact camera-to-eye-distance. Further, the image is clipped to a standard height and width which are selected such that the image will contain only the relevant image part, i.e. the region around the iris 20. Finally, the scaled and clipped image is saved in a memory for further processing.

When it is found in step S1-6 that at least one of the distance D and the angular offsets is not admissible (N), corresponding correction instructions are shown on the camera display in step S1-9, showing the user how he has to move the camera in order to bring the distance and the angular offsets into the respective tolerance ranges. From step S1-9, the program loops back to step S3, and the steps S1-3 to S1-6 are repeated until a suitable camera position has been reached.

In a modified embodiment of this method, calculations corresponding to those in steps S1-3 to S1-5 will be performed only after the camera has been triggered and the image has been saved. Depending on the result of a check that is comparable to step S1-6, the user will then be advised whether the image is accepted or rejected. In this case, the processing does not have to be done in the camera but may done in a multi-purpose computer to which the camera 26 is connected after the image has been taken.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram expanding the step S2 (FIG. 2) of delineating the pupil boundary 28 (FIG. 1).

In this example, the image that has been saved in step S1-8 is a monochromatic (infrared) intensity image, wherein an intensity value is assigned to each pixel of the image. Of course, a straightforward extension to color images with, for example, three intensity values per pixel would be possible.

In the intensity image, the area of the pupil 18 is a low intensity area which, however, is “pierced” by the specularity spots 42. In order to reconstruct the original pupil area, the specularity pattern is removed in step S2-1. This can be achieved by means of an inpainting algorithm which fills in the area of the spots 42 using information from the surrounding area of the pupil 18. Mathematically, the problem is equivalent to solving a system of Navier-Stokes equations in classical fluid dynamics, when the image intensity is considered as a “stream function” for a two-dimensional incompressible flow. The Laplacian of the image intensity plays the role of the vorticity of the fluid and is trans-ported into the region of the spots 42 by a vector field defined by the stream function. Details of the algorithm are described by Bertalmio, M.; Bertozzi, A. L.; Sapiro, G.: “Navier-Stokes, Fluid Dynamics and Image and Video Inpainting” Computer Vision. and Pattern Recognition, 2001, CVPR 2001, Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Computer Society Conference, vol. 1, pp. 1-355-1-362. Of course, any other known inpainting method may used.

As the pupil 18 is a low intensity area, the intensities are compared to a threshold in step S2-2, and pixels having an intensity above the threshold are masked-off, so that only low intensity areas remain which should include the pupil area. The threshold value may for example be 25% of the highest intensity value (after the specularity spots 42 have been eliminated).

The pupil area is not only characterized by low intensity values but also a low texture area, i.e. an area that is almost free of substantial high-frequency intensity variations. This is why, in addition to the intensity criterion, the method for identifying the pupil area uses also a texture image that is constructed in step S2-3.

The texture image can be derived from the intensity image by computing an edge contrast for each pixel. For example, a Sobel first derivative filter may be used for that purpose, and the output may be smoothened with a spatial averaging filter.

Step S2-4 is a step of forming a pointwise product of the masked intensity image obtained in step S2-2 and the texture image obtained in step S2-3, i.e. the intensity value of each pixel is multiplied by the contrast value of that pixel. Thus, image areas in the masked intensity image which have both, a low intensity and low texture are characterized by particularly low values in the product image. The pixels of the pupil area can be expected to have the lowest product values in the entire image, and, moreover, these product values will be almost identical, since the pupil area is essentially uniform in both, intensity and texture. Consequently, a good estimate for the real pupil area will be obtained by comparing the product values to a suitably selected threshold.

To that end, a histogram of the product image is computed in step S2-5. An example of such a histogram has been illustrated in FIG. 9, showing the frequency of occurrence of each product value (i.e. the number of pixels having that product value) as a function of the product value. The pixels of the pupil 18 will form a distinct peak 52 at the low end of the histogram.

In step S2-6, a threshold T (FIG. 9) is selected such that it marks the high end of the peak 52. Consequently, all the pixels having product values below the threshold T can be expected to form the pupil area.

The set of pixels that fulfils this threshold criterion is selected in step S2-7. An example of such a set 54 has been shown in FIG. 10. In practice, there may of course be outliers, e.g. “islands” 56 of pixels which are located outside of the area of the pupil 18 but have product values below the threshold T, and “bays” 58 and “lakes” 60 of pixels inside the pupil area which have product values above the threshold T.

In step S2-8, the islands 56 are eliminated, using well known image processing techniques such as morphological dilation and erosion operations. The bays 58 and lakes 60 are eliminated by forming the convex hull of the remaining set 54, as has been shown in FIG. 11. Normally, this convex hull will be a good guess for the real boundary 28 of the pupil 18.

There may however be cases where the pupil area obtained in this way is unrealistically or unacceptably large or unrealistically or unacceptably small. Reasons for this may be for example an inappropriate choice of the threshold T or an extreme dilation or contraction of the pupil of the horse as a result of abnormal illumination conditions. The latter case will not actually be “unrealistic”, but should nevertheless be excluded, because extreme dilations or contractions of the pupil would imply that the iris 20 is distorted to an extent that makes the match of iris codes impossible even for images taken from the same individual. For this reason, it is checked in step S2-9 whether the dimensions of the iris 18, e.g. the total height, as determined on the basis of the convex hull is within an acceptable range. The upper and lower limits of this range can be determined empirically for the given species of vertebrates. It should be noted in this context that the height of the pupil area in the digital image can be taken as a measure for the actual height of the pupil because the image capturing process (step S1) assures that the images are always taken from approximately the same distance and remaining distance variations have been compensated by image scaling.

If the result of the check in step S2-9 is negative (N), it is checked in step S2-10 whether a flag has been set. If the flag has not been set (N), the flag is set in step S2-11, and the program loops back to step S2-6. It will then be attempted in step S2-6 to obtain a pupil with reasonable size by correcting the threshold T. When the dimension of the pupil was too large, the threshold T will be shifted to lower values, and it will be shifted to higher values when the dimension of the pupil was too small. When the steps S2-6 to S2-8 have been run-through a second time, and it is still found in step S2-9 that the dimensions of the pupil are not acceptable, it is found in step S2-10 that the flag is set (Y) which indicates that an attempt to correct the threshold T has already been made and has failed. In this case, the image is rejected in step S2-12 and the user is invited to capture a new image.

Of course, in a modified embodiment, the flag checked in step S2-10 may be replaced by a count value counting the number of times that the loop S2-6 to S2-11 has been run-through, so that a larger number of correction attempts for the threshold T can be made.

When the check in step S3-9 has the result that the dimensions of the pupil are acceptable (Y), the process of delineating the pupil boundary is completed, and the program continues with in step S2-13 for calling the procedure for normalizing the iris image (step S3).

In a modified embodiment, the calculation the angular offsets (as in step S1-5 in FIG. 7) or a more exact calculation of these offsets may be performed subsequent to the delineation of the pupil boundary so that the more exact pupil boundary may be used for determining the position of the center 48 of the pupil.

As is shown in FIG. 11, the iris 20 is a ring shaped area that is delimited at the inner periphery by the pupil boundary 28 and at the outer periphery by the iris/sclera boundary 24. When the pupil 18 dilates or contracts while the outer boundary 24 of the iris remains unchanged, each point of the iris 20 will be shifted in a generally radial direction by an amount that is large when the point is close to the pupil boundary 28 and becomes smaller when the point is closer to the stationary outer boundary 24. The purpose of the normalization step S3 is to obtain a normalized iris image that is not affected by the dilations and contractions of the pupil 18, so that the iris images and the resulting iris codes can be compared to one another.

The approach is to transform the coordinates of the pixel of the iris area from a Cartesian xy-coordinate system (shown in FIG. 11) into a coordinate system that may be called a “generalized polar coordinate system”.

If the pupil 18 could be assumed to be circular, a true polar coordinate system could be used, as is known for iris analysis for humans. In that case, normalization for varying pupil radii could easily be achieved by setting the radius coordinate of the pixel in proportion to the difference between the radius of the iris/sclera boundary and the radius of the pupil. However, in the method that is discussed here, the pupil boundary 28 is not defined as a circle but as a more complex geometrical line object which can only be described by a larger number of parameters. For example, the boundary 28 may be polygon with a very large number of corners connected by straight line segments which will approximate the smooth contour of the true boundary. Such object can only be described by defining the coordinate positions of each vertex of the polygon. This makes the identification system more robust against irregular pupil shapes but, on the other hand, requires a non-trivial coordinate transformation for normalization purposes.

In order to obtain a suitable new coordinate system, the ring-shaped area of the iris 20 is divided into a sequence of radial spokes 62, as has symbolically been shown in FIG. 12. In practice, the number of spokes will be significantly larger than in FIG. 12, preferably so large that each pixel of the image lies on one of the spokes 62. This may involve a redimensioning and re-shaping of the pixels when they are mapped from the original images to the normalized image. For at least some of the spokes 62, the spacing from spoke to spoke is larger near the outer boundary 24 than near the pupil boundary 28. Near the outer boundary 24, larger pixels may be formed by sampling or averaging over a plurality of pixels of the original image, which means a loss of resolution. Conversely, when the original pixel size is approximately retained near the outer boundary 24, two or more of the spokes 62 may pass over the same original pixel near the pupil boundary 28, which means that the image information becomes redundant. The number and density of the spokes 62 is therefore selected to be a reasonable compromise between resolution and redundancy.

The spokes 62 are numbered sequentially along the boundary of the pupil 28. In the simplified example in FIG. 12 (20 spokes), the spoke numbers are running from 1 through 20. For a pixel located on a given spoke 62, the running number of that spoke will be the first coordinate “a” in the new coordinate system. As an example, FIG. 12 shows a pixel 64 on spoke number 13, so that the first coordinate “a” of this pixel will be a=13. A second coordinate r of the pixel 64 is determined by its location on the spoke, normalized to the entire length of the corresponding spoke, so that a pixel located on the pupil boundary 28 would have the second coordinate r=0 and a pixel located on the outer boundary 24 of the iris would have the coordinate r=1 (or any other constant value).

Thus, when the pupil boundary 28 is dilated while the (a, r)-coordinates are kept constant, the pixel 64 designated by these coordinates will move outwardly along its spoke. This movement of the pixel will at least approximately simulate the movement of the corresponding point on the iris when the iris is physically distorted by the dilation of the pupil.

Thus, when two images of the same iris are captured for different dilation states of pupil 18, pixels having the same (a, r)-coordinates will at least approximately have the same intensity values.

In the scheme that has been described above, there is still some choice in the exact arrangement of the spokes 62. In the example shown, the spokes are arranged to be normal to the pupil boundary 28 (i.e. normal to the tangent to this boundary at the point where the spoke meets the boundary).

In a modified embodiment, a number of equidistant points may be defined on the pupil boundary 28, and a like number of equidistant points might be defined on the outer boundary 24, and the spokes may be formed by connecting corresponding points on the two boundaries.

Other arrangements of the spokes 62 are also possible as long as the way how the pixels are shifted in response to dilations and contractions of the pupil corresponds with sufficient accuracy to the actual distortion of the iris.

When the iris/sclera boundary 24 or at least a substantial part thereof is visible in the captured image, so that any obscured parts of the boundary can readily be interpolated on the basis of the assumption that the boundary has a regular (e.g. circular) shape (as is typically the case for humans), the length of each spoke 62 is determined by the requirement that the outer end of the spoke must be located on the boundary 24. However, when the boundary 24 is largely obscured as in the example shown in FIG. 1, a suitable way must be found to “reconstruct” the boundary 24 or, more precisely, to construct an imaginary boundary that will be similar to the real boundary.

In the example shown in FIG. 12, it is assumed that the height of the iris 20, i.e. the distance between the lower apex and the upper apex of the boundary 24, is essentially the same for all adult individuals of the same species. For horses, it has been confirmed that this assumption is fulfilled with sufficient accuracy.

Since the image that has been obtained in step S1-8 is scaled to a standard camera-to-eye-distance D, the above assumption implies that the vertical dimension of the boundary 24 has a fixed value, e.g. 150 pixel in the x-y coordinate system shown in FIG. 11. Then, a reasonable value for the length of the spokes 62 can be obtained by subtracting the vertical dimension of the pupil 18 (measured in pixels in FIG. 11) from the vertical dimension of the boundary 24 and dividing the difference by two. In the example shown in FIG. 12, all the spokes 62 are assumed to have the same length which is calculated pursuant to this formula. Together with the requirement that the spokes are normal to the pupil boundary 28, this defines the shape of the outer boundary 24.

At least for horses, this way of constructing the boundary 24 is realistic. When the dilation and contraction of the pupil 18 is not isotropic, the horizontal dimension of the boundary 24 (distance from the left apex to the right apex in FIG. 12) will not be exactly constant. However, the resulting deviations from the physical shape of the iris are found to be acceptable.

FIG. 13 illustrates a modified embodiment wherein it is assumed that not only the height but also the width of the pupil 20 (its outer boundary 24) is constant, and the shape of the boundary 24 can be approximated by a suitable oval, such as an ellipse or a Cassini oval. In the example shown in FIG. 13, the height of the iris is assumed to be 150 pixel and the width is assumed to be 250 pixel. Again, the spokes 62 are arranged to be normal to the pupil boundary 28. Further, in this example, the spokes 62 have been arranged such that their outer end points (on the boundary 24) are equidistant. As an alternative, the inner end points (on the pupil boundary 28) may be made equidistant (as in FIG. 12), or equal distances may be required for corresponding points on the spokes 62 for any given coordinate value r between 0 and 1.

FIG. 14 gives an example of a normalized iris image 66 resulting from the coordinate transformation that has been explained in conjunction with FIG. 12. Here, the (a, r)-coordinates are represented as Cartesian coordinates, with the a-coordinates on the abscissa and the r-coordinates on the ordinate, so that the ring-shaped area of the pupil 20 is evolved into a rectangular strip 68.

Ideally, two normalized iris images 66 obtained from two photographs of the same eye should be identical. In practice, however, the absolute position of, e.g., spoke number 1 on the pupil boundary 28 is somewhat arbitrary, so that the a-coordinates in one image may be slightly shifted relative the a-coordinates in the other image. This effect may be compensated by a slight “rotation” of the spoke pattern along the boundary 28 or, equivalently, a cyclic permutation of the spokes in the normalized image 66, as has been illustrated in FIG. 15.

Such a shift of the a-coordinates might also be caused by a slight rotation of the camera 26 about the aspect axis A (FIG. 6) when the image is captured. In this case, another possibility to compensate the shift is to rotate the digital image (prior to the coordinate transformation) until the axis of largest elongation of the pupil is horizontal in the image.

Another type of differences between two normalized images taken from the same eye may be caused by different positions of the upper and lower eyelids 12, 14 at the instant when the photos are taken, so that smaller or larger parts of the iris 20 are obscured. Consequently, when comparing two normalized images, the areas of the iris that may be affected by slight movements of the eyelids should be ignored. In FIG. 12, these areas have been delimited by straight lines 70, 72 in the top and bottom parts of the iris 20. In FIG. 14, the ignored parts of the strip 68 in the normalized image 66 are delineated by corresponding lines 70′, 72′.

In order to facilitate and speed up the identification of individuals, the normalized images 66 are not directly compared to one another, but are subjected to a filter procedure resulting in a more compressed iris code (step S4 in FIG. 2). Such filtering procedures are known in the art. Examples are described by Daugman in U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560 and in the article “How Iris Recognition Works” that has been cited in the introductory part of the present description. In brief, the process may include filtering horizontal slices through the normalized iris image 66 with logarithmic Gabor filters. This filter process provides a complex number of each point along the slice. The phases of these complex numbers may then be quantized into a two-bit representation specifying the quadrant in the complex plane in which the phase angle lies. These bits, together, form the iris code.

In order to identify an individual, the iris codes thus obtained are matched to one another. Preferably, the code match is repeated for several “rotated” versions of the normalized image 66 (FIG. 15), and the portions delineated by the lines 70′, 72′ in FIG. 14 are excluded from the code match.

Moreover, since the normalization of the iris image is based on an estimate of the size of the iris (height of outer iris boundary in FIG. 12 and height and width of the outer iris boundary in FIG. 13, respectively), based on the dimensions of a “typical” iris, the quality of the normalization may depend upon the amount of concordance between this estimate and the real size of the iris of the individual. Therefore for each individual, a plurality of iris codes is provided based on different estimates for the dimension of the outer iris boundary. Then, when an individual is to be identified, it will be sufficient to require that there is at least one pair of matching iris codes. This will increase the likelihood of successful code matches in view of the uncertainty involved in the normalization.

The code match basically comprises computing the number of non-matching bits (Hamming Distance) by subjecting the two codes to be matched to an exclusive OR logical operation (XOR). The fraction of the non-matching bits in relation to the total number of bits indicates the probability that the two codes represent different eyes. When this fraction is smaller than a certain threshold, the code match is considered to have been successful.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of an example of an identification system employing the method according to the invention and designed for identifying horses. A provider 74 of the identification services maintains a database 76 and communicates with a number of clients 78 via a communication network, e.g. the Internet.

Each client 78 can rent or purchase an iris code capturing kit 80 from the provider 74. Each kit 80 includes the camera 26 as well as the software and hardware necessary for performing the method that has been described above.

An example of a record 82 that is kept in the database 76 and describes an individual horse has been given in FIG. 17. The record 82 includes an iris code field 84 and several other fields for other relevant data about the horse, such as its name, race, color, and the like. In the example shown, the iris code field 84 contains a plurality of iris codes 84 a each of which is based on a different normalization scheme for the iris image.

When a client 78 wants to register a horse in the database 76, he uses his kit 80 for capturing an image of one or both eyes of the horse and sends the iris code that has been created on the basis of this image to the database 76 along with other information to be entered into the record 82. Preferably, several iris codes will be generated from the same captured image, but with different size estimates for the normalization of the iris image, and these different iris codes may be sent to the database and stored therein. The client may also capture a plurality of images from the same eye of the horse, and a software in the kit 80 or in the premises of the provider 74 creates the corresponding iris codes and checks whether these codes are consistent, i.e. whether code matches between these codes are successful. When a code match is not successful, another attempt may be made after having performed a cyclic shift of the bits in one of the codes to be compared, this bit shift reflecting a cyclic permutation of the spokes or a-coordinates as has been described in conjunction with FIGS. 14 and 15. When a sufficient number of iris codes has been obtained that can mutually be matched to one another, a selection of these codes or averages over codes based on the same normalization scheme may be transmitted to the database 76 to be entered into the iris code field 84.

When a client 78 wants to retrieve data about an individual horse from the database 76, he uses the kit 80 for creating one or more iris codes for this horse and sends the iris codes to the database 76, if possible together with other information for identifying the horse, such as the name, the owner, and the like. In order to find the pertinent record in the database, it may be more expedient to search for the name or other ID information rather than searching for a matching iris code. When a pertinent record has been found, the iris codes sent by the client 78 may be checked against the iris codes stored in the record in order to confirm the identity of the horse. The checks may optionally be limited to pairs of codes that have been created on the basis of the same normalization scheme. Again, the code match may be repeated for a bit-shifted version of the code if the first attempt was not successful. Moreover, in order to improve the robustness of the identification, it is possible that the client 78 captures a plurality of images of the same eye of the same horse and sends the corresponding iris codes to the database 76, where they are matched against the stored code or codes. Then, identity will be confirmed when at least one of the codes matches. The required number of codes sent by the user may however be smaller than in the case that a new record is entered into the database.

When a client 78 tries to find out the identity of an unknown horse, he may send the iris code of that horse to the database 76, and this code may be checked against the codes that are stored in all the records 82 in the database, in order to determine the identity of the horse. 

1. A method of generating a normalized digital image of an iris of an eye for the purpose of creating an iris code for identification of vertebrates, including humans, the method comprising the steps of: capturing one or more digital images of the eye with a camera; constructing a plurality of imaginary outer iris boundaries in the one or more digital images, based on a known dimension of the outer iris boundary of the eye of a given species of vertebrates; and using said imaginary boundaries for transforming the one or more digital images into a plurality of normalized iris image that are insensitive to variations in a dimension of a pupil of the eye.
 2. The method according to claim 1, for an eye having an elongated pupil, wherein each imaginary outer iris boundary is constructed by first erecting non-intersecting spokes on a boundary of the pupil, each spoke being normal to the boundary of the pupil, and then connecting outer end points of the spokes, wherein all the spokes have the same length and this length is calculated by: setting a fixed number that represents, for a given species of vertebrates, a known standard dimension of the outer boundary of the iris in a first direction normal to a second direction of largest elongation of the pupil, subtracting the dimension of the boundary of the pupil region in said first direction from said fixed number, and dividing the difference by two.
 3. The method according to claim 1, for an eye having an elongated pupil, wherein each outer boundary of the iris is constructed by placing an oval with a fixed shape and a fixed size into the image such that the oval is centered on the pupil area and has a large axis coinciding with the direction of largest elongation of the pupil.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the construction of the imaginary outer iris boundaries in the one or more digital images is preceded by: determining a camera-to-eye distance at the moment of image capture; scaling the digital image to a standard camera-to-eye distance; wherein the construction of the boundaries is done using the scaled digital image.
 5. A method of identifying an individual by checking a plurality of pairs of iris codes, each pair including a sample iris code of an eye of said individual and a reference iris code, wherein said sample and reference iris codes are created from normalized images obtained with the method according to claim 1 and comprise at least two sample iris codes for which different imaginary outer iris boundaries have been used for forming the normalized iris images, and wherein the individual is determined to be identified when said check results in at least one pair of matching codes.
 6. A method of identifying an individual by checking a plurality of pairs of iris codes, each pair including a sample iris code of an eye of said individual and a reference iris code, wherein said sample and reference iris codes are created from normalized images obtained with the method according to claim 1 and comprise at least two reference iris codes for which different imaginary outer iris boundaries have been used for forming the normalized iris images, and wherein the individual is determined to be identified when said check results in at least one pair of matching codes.
 7. A data record stored on a machine readable data carrier, said data record including a binary iris code created from a normalized image obtained with the method according to claim
 1. 8. The data record according to claim 7, including a plurality of binary iris codes for the same eye, said codes being obtained from normalized iris images that have been generated which different imaginary outer iris boundaries.
 9. An iris code generation kit comprising a camera and software and hardware suitable for carrying out the method according to claim
 1. 10. An identification system for identifying vertebrates, including humans, on the basis of an iris code match, comprising at least one iris code generation kit according to claim 9 and a database storing data records according to claim 7 or
 8. 